1.
Cyperus papyrus
–
Cyperus papyrus is a species of aquatic flowering plant belonging to the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is a herbaceous perennial, native to Africa. Papyrus sedge has a long history of use by humans, notably by the Ancient Egyptians—it is the source of papyrus paper. Parts of the plant can be eaten, and the highly buoyant stems can be made into boats and it is now often cultivated as an ornamental plant. In nature, it grows in sun, in flooded swamps, and on lake margins throughout Africa, Madagascar. C. papyrus and the dwarf cultivar C. papyrus Nanus have gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit and this tall, robust, leafless aquatic plant can grow 4 to 5 m high. It forms a clump of triangular green stems that rise up from thick. Each stem is topped by a cluster of thin, bright green, thread-like stems around 10 to 30 cm in length. Greenish-brown flower clusters eventually appear at the ends of the rays, giving way to brown, the younger parts of the rhizome are covered by red-brown, papery, triangular scales, which also cover the base of the culms. Botanically, these represent reduced leaves, so strictly it is not quite correct to call this plant fully leafless, Egyptians used the plant for many purposes, most famously for making papyrus. Its name in Greek and in English is widely believed to have come from Egyptian, Cyperus papyrus is now used mainly for decoration, as it is nearly extinct in its native habitat in the Nile Delta, where in ancient times it was widely cultivated. Theophrastus History of Plants states that it grew in Syria, and according to Plinys Natural History, it was also a plant of the Niger River. Aside from papyrus, several members of the genus Cyperus may also have been involved in the multiple uses Egyptians found for the plant. Its flowering heads were linked to make garlands for the gods in gratitude, the pith of young shoots was eaten both cooked and raw. Its woody root made bowls and other utensils and was burned for fuel, from the stems were made reed boats, sails, mats, cloth, cordage, and sandals. The rush or reed basket in which the Biblical figure Moses was abandoned may have made from papyrus. The adventurer Thor Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus, Ra and Ra II, in an attempt to demonstrate that ancient African or Mediterranean people could have reached America and he succeeded in sailing Ra II from Morocco to Barbados. Fishermen in the Okavango Delta use small sections of the stem as floats for their nets, papyrus can be found in tropical rain forests, tolerating annual temperatures of 20 to 30 °C and a pH of 6.0 to 8.5
Cyperus papyrus
–
Cyperus papyrus
Cyperus papyrus
–
Papyrus plant (Cyperus papyrus) at Kew Gardens, London
Cyperus papyrus
–
Papyrus paper
Cyperus papyrus
–
Papyrus growing wild on the banks of the Nile in
Uganda
2.
Paper
–
Paper is a thin material produced by pressing together moist fibres of cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets. It is a material with many uses, including writing, printing, packaging, cleaning. The modern pulp and paper industry is global, with China leading its production, the oldest known archaeological fragments of the immediate precursor to modern paper, date to the 2nd century BC in China. The pulp papermaking process is ascribed to Cai Lun, a 2nd-century AD Han court eunuch, with paper as an effective substitute for silk in many applications, China could export silk in greater quantity, contributing to a Golden Age. Because of papers introduction to the West through the city of Baghdad, in the 19th century, industrial manufacture greatly lowered its cost, enabling mass exchange of information and contributing to significant cultural shifts. In 1844, the Canadian inventor Charles Fenerty and the German F. G. Keller independently developed processes for pulping wood fibres, before the industrialisation of the paper production the most common fibre source was recycled fibres from used textiles, called rags. The rags were from hemp, linen and cotton, a process for removing printing inks from recycled paper was invented by German jurist Justus Claproth in 1774. Today this method is called deinking and it was not until the introduction of wood pulp in 1843 that paper production was not dependent on recycled materials from ragpickers. The word paper is etymologically derived from Latin papyrus, which comes from the Greek πάπυρος, although the word paper is etymologically derived from papyrus, the two are produced very differently and the development of the first is distinct from the development of the second. Papyrus is a lamination of natural plant fibres, while paper is manufactured from fibres whose properties have changed by maceration. To make pulp from wood, a chemical pulping process separates lignin from cellulose fibres and this is accomplished by dissolving lignin in a cooking liquor, so that it may be washed from the cellulose, this preserves the length of the cellulose fibres. Paper made from chemical pulps are also known as wood-free papers–not to be confused with paper, this is because they do not contain lignin. The pulp can also be bleached to produce paper, but this consumes 5% of the fibres, chemical pulping processes are not used to make paper made from cotton. There are three main chemical pulping processes, the process dates back to the 1840s and it was the dominant method extent before the second world war. Most pulping operations using the process are net contributors to the electricity grid or use the electricity to run an adjacent paper mill. Another advantage is that this process recovers and reuses all inorganic chemical reagents, soda pulping is another specialty process used to pulp straws, bagasse and hardwoods with high silicate content. There are two major mechanical pulps, thermomechanical pulp and groundwood pulp, in the TMP process, wood is chipped and then fed into steam heated refiners, where the chips are squeezed and converted to fibres between two steel discs. In the groundwood process, debarked logs are fed into grinders where they are pressed against rotating stones to be made into fibres
Paper
–
Different types of paper:
carton,
tissue paper
Paper
–
Hemp wrapping paper, China, circa 100 BC.
Paper
–
The microscopic structure of paper:
Micrograph of paper
autofluorescing under
ultraviolet illumination. The individual fibres in this sample are around 10
µm in diameter.
Paper
–
Card and paper stock for
crafts use comes in a wide variety of textures and colors.
3.
Pith
–
Pith, or medulla, is a tissue in the stems of vascular plants. Pith is composed of soft, spongy parenchyma cells, which store, in eudicots, pith is located in the center of the stem. In monocots, it also into flowering stems and roots. The pith is encircled by a ring of xylem, the xylem, while new pith growth is usually white or pale in color, as the tissue ages it commonly darkens to a deeper brown color. In trees pith is generally present in young growth, but in the trunk, in some plants, the pith in the middle of the stem may dry out and disintegrate, resulting in a hollow stem. A few plants, such as walnuts, have distinctive chambered pith with numerous short cavities, the cells in the peripheral parts of the pith may, in some plants, develop to be different from cells in the rest of the pith. This layer of cells is called the perimedullary region of the pithamus. An example of this can be observed in Hedera helix, a species of ivy, the term pith is also used to refer to the pale, spongy inner layer of the rind - more properly called mesocarp or albedo - of citrus fruits and other hesperidia. The word comes from the Old English word piþa, meaning substance, akin to Middle Dutch pitt, the pith of the sola or other similar plants is used to make the pith helmet. The pith of the palm, although highly toxic to animals in its raw form, is an important human food source in Melanesia and Micronesia by virtue of its starch content. There is an easy, primitive process of extraction from sago pith that leaches away a sufficient amount of the toxins. The form of the starch after processing is similar to tapioca
Pith
–
Elderberry shoot cut longitudinally to show the broad, solid pith (rough-textured, white) inside the wood (smooth, yellow-tinged). Scale in mm.
Pith
–
The tiny centre dark spot (about 1 mm diameter) in this
yew wood is the pith
Pith
–
Walnut shoot cut longitudinally to show the chambered pith found in this genus. Scale in mm.
4.
Sedge
–
The Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses and rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera and these species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical Asia and tropical South America. While sedges may be growing in almost all environments, many are associated with wetlands. Ecological communities dominated by sedges are known as sedgelands, features distinguishing members of the sedge family from grasses or rushes are stems with triangular cross-sections and leaves that are spirally arranged in three ranks. Some well-known sedges include the chestnut and the papyrus sedge. This family also includes cotton-grass, spike-rush, sawgrass, nutsedge or nutgrass, and white star sedge
Sedge
–
Cyperaceae
Sedge
–
Cyperus rotundus,
Kerala
Sedge
–
Broad-leaved cotton-grass (Eriophorum latifolium)
Sedge
–
Carex Serotina
5.
Scroll
–
A scroll, also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. The scroll is usually unrolled so that one page is exposed at a time, for writing or reading, with the remaining pages rolled up to the left and right of the visible page. It is unrolled side to side, and the text is written in lines from the top to the bottom of the page. Depending on the language, the letters may be left to right, right to left. Some scrolls are simply rolled up pages, others may have wooden rollers on each end, scrolls were the first form of editable record keeping texts, used in Eastern Mediterranean ancient Egyptian civilizations. Parchment scroll used by Israelites after Sinai was the first use of scrolls in the recording of literature before the codex or bound book with pages was invented by the Latins in the 1st century AD. Scrolls were more highly regarded than codices until well into Roman times where they were written in single latitudinal column. The ink used in writing scrolls had to adhere to a surface that was rolled and unrolled, even so, ink would slowly flake off of scrolls. Shorter pieces of parchment or paper are called rolls or rotuli, historians of the classical period tend to use roll instead of scroll. A distinction that sometimes applies is that the lines of writing in rotuli run across the width of the rather than along the length. Rolls may be wider than most scrolls, up to perhaps 60 cm or two feet wide, Rolls were often stored together in a special cupboard on shelves. A special Chinese form of book, called the whirlwind book, consists of several pieces of paper bound at the top with bamboo. In Scotland, the term scrow was used from about the 13th to the 17th centuries for scroll, writing, there existed an office of Clerk of the Scrow meaning the Clerk of the Rolls or Clerk of the Register. The scroll was replaced by the codex, a process which started almost as soon as the codex was invented. Unfortunately, scrolls were usually discarded after their contents were transferred to a codex, most scrolls uncovered by archaeologists are found in trash middens and burial sites. The oldest complete Torah scroll was discovered in May 2013 by Professor Mauro Perani. It was stored in a library in Bolonia, Italy. It had been mislabeled in 1889 as dating from the 17th century, carbon testing dates the prayer book to the year 840, which is 300 to 400 years earlier than the previously oldest known Torah scrolls from the 12th and 13th centuries
Scroll
–
The Joshua Roll,
Vatican Library. An
illuminatedscroll, probably of the 10th century, created in the Byzantine empire.
Scroll
–
Scroll of the
Book of Esther,
Seville,
Spain.
Scroll
–
Ingredients used in making ink for Hebrew scrolls today.
6.
Ancient Egypt
–
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
Ancient Egypt
–
The
Great Sphinx and the
pyramids of Giza are among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt
–
A typical Naqada II jar decorated with gazelles. (Predynastic Period)
Ancient Egypt
–
The
Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands.
7.
Nile Delta
–
The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the worlds largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, from north to south the delta is approximately 160 kilometres in length. The Delta begins slightly down-river from Cairo, from north to south, the delta is approximately 160 kilometres in length. From west-to-east, it covers some 240 kilometres of coastline, the delta is sometimes divided into sections, with the Nile dividing into two main distributaries, the Damietta and the Rosetta, flowing into the Mediterranean at port cities with the same name. In the past, the delta had several distributaries, but these have been lost due to flood control, one such defunct distributary is Wadi Tumilat. The Suez Canal runs to the east of the delta, entering the coastal Lake Manzala in the north-east of the delta, to the north-west are three other coastal lakes or lagoons, Lake Burullus, Lake Idku and Lake Maryut. The Nile is considered to be a delta, as it resembles a triangle or flower when seen from above. The outer edges of the delta are eroding, and some coastal lagoons have seen increasing salinity levels as their connection to the Mediterranean Sea increases, topsoil in the delta can be as much as 70 feet in depth. People have lived in the Delta region for thousands of years, the Delta River used to flood on an annual basis, but this ended with the construction of the Aswan Dam. The Rosetta Stone was found in the Nile Delta in 1799 in the city of Rosetta. The delta was a constituent of Lower Egypt. The Biblical Land of Goshen was located in an area on the west bank of the Pelusiac distributary. There are many sites in and around the Nile Delta. About 39 million people live in the Delta region, outside of major cities, population density in the delta averages 1,000 persons/km² or more. Alexandria is the largest city in the delta with a population of more than 4.5 million. Other large cities in the delta include Shubra al Khaymah, Port Said, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, El Mansura, Tanta, during autumn, parts of the Nile River are red with lotus flowers. The Lower Nile and the Upper Nile have plants that grow in abundance, the Upper Nile plant is the Egyptian lotus, and the Lower Nile plant is the Papyrus Sedge, although it is not nearly as plentiful as it once was, and is becoming quite rare. Several hundred thousand birds winter in the delta, including the world’s largest concentrations of little gulls
Nile Delta
–
NASA satellite photograph of the Nile Delta (shown in false color)
Nile Delta
–
The Nile Delta at night
Nile Delta
–
Nile River and Delta
Nile Delta
–
Ancient branches of the Nile, showing Wadi Tumilat, and the lakes east of the Delta
8.
History of the Mediterranean
–
The Mediterranean Sea was the central superhighway of transport, trade and cultural exchange between diverse peoples encompassing three continents, Western Asia, North Africa, and Southern Europe. There is evidence of tools on Crete,130,000 years BCE. The cultural stage of civilization first arises in Southwest Asia, as an extension of the Neolithic trend, from as early as the 8th millennium BCE, urban civilizations proper begin to emerge in the Chalcolithic, in 5th to 4th millennium Egypt and in Mesopotamia. The Bronze Age arises in this region during the centuries of the 4th millennium. The urban civilizations of the Fertile Crescent now have writing systems and develop bureaucracy, in the 2nd millennium, the eastern coastlines of the Mediterranean are dominated by the Hittite and Egyptian empires, competing for control over the city states in the Levant. Some have gone so far as to call the catalyst that ended the Bronze Age a catastrophe, in the first phase of this period, almost every city between Troy and Gaza was violently destroyed, and often left unoccupied thereafter. The gradual end of the Dark Age that ensued saw the rise of settled Neo-Hittite Aramaean kingdoms of the mid-10th century BCE, fernand Braudel remarked in The Perspective of the World that Phoenicia was an early example of a world-economy surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed ca, many of the most important Phoenician settlements had been established long before this, Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Simyra, Arwad, and Berytus, all appear in the Amarna tablets. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilizations in antiquity were the Greek city states. The Greeks expanded throughout the Black Sea and south through the Red Sea, the Phoenicians spread through the western Mediterranean reaching North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. From the 6th century BCE up to including the 5th century BCE, many of the significant Mediterranean peoples were under Persian rule, both the Phoenicians and some of the Greek city states in Asia Minor provided the naval forces of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Persian dominance ended after the Greco-Persian War in the 5th century BCE, Darius the Great is to be credited as the first Achaemenid king to invest in a Persian fleet. Even by then no true imperial navy had existed either in Greece or Egypt, Persia would become the first empire, under Darius, to inaugurate and deploy the first regular imperial navy. Both the Phoenicians and the Greeks provided the bulk of the forces of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, alongside the Cypriots. In the northernmost part of ancient Greece, in the ancient kingdom of Macedonia, the hetairoi was considered the strongest of their time. Under Alexander the Great, this force turned east, and in a series of battles, it routed the Persian forces. Their Macedonia empire included present-day Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, the Phoenician lands and many other regions of the Mediterranean. The major centres of the Mediterranean at the time part of Alexanders empire as a result
History of the Mediterranean
–
Bacino del Mediterraneo, dall’Atlante manoscritto del 1582–1584 ca.
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II,
Rome (cart. naut. 2 – cart. naut 6/1-2).
History of the Mediterranean
–
Greatest extent of Italian control of the Mediterranean littoral and seas (within green line & dots) in summer/fall 1942. Allied-controlled areas in red.
9.
Kingdom of Kush
–
The Kingdom of Kush or Kush was an ancient Nubian kingdom situated on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now Sudan and South Sudan. The Kushite era of rule in Nubia was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, during Classical antiquity, the Kushite imperial capital was at Meroe. In early Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Aethiopia, by the 1st century AD, the Kushite capital had been captured by the Beja Dynasty, who tried to revive the empire. The Kushite kingdom with its capital at Meroe persisted until the 4th century AD, the Kushite capital was eventually captured and burnt to the ground by the Kingdom of Axum. It is also a term for the native population who initiated the kingdom of Kush. The term is also displayed in the names of Kushite persons, geographically, Kush referred to the region south of the first cataract in general. Kush also was the home of the rulers of the 25th dynasty, the name Kush, since at least the time of Josephus, has been connected with the biblical character Cush, in the Hebrew Bible, son of Ham. Ham had four sons named, Cush, Put, Canaan, according to the Bible, Nimrod, a son of Cush, was the founder and king of Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. The Bible also makes reference to someone named Cush who is a Benjamite, some modern scholars, such as Friedrich Delitzsch, have suggested that the biblical Cush might be linked to the Kassites of the Zagros Mountains. Mentuhotep II is recorded to have undertaken campaigns against Kush in the 29th and this is the earliest Egyptian reference to Kush, the Nubian region had gone by other names in the Old Kingdom. During the New Kingdom of Egypt, Nubia was an Egyptian colony, with the disintegration of the New Kingdom around 1070 BC, Kush became an independent kingdom centered at Napata in modern northern Sudan. The Kushites buried their monarchs along with all their courtiers in mass graves, archaeologists refer to these practices as the Pan-grave culture. This was given its due to the way in which the remains are buried. They would dig a pit and put stones around them in a circle, Kushites also built burial mounds and pyramids, and shared some of the same gods worshiped in Egypt, especially Ammon and Isis. With the worshiping of these gods the Kushites began to some of the names of the gods as their throne names. The Kush rulers were regarded as guardians of the religion and were responsible for maintaining the houses of the gods. Some scholars believe the economy in the Kingdom of Kush was a redistributive system, the state would collect taxes in the form of surplus produce and would redistribute to the people. Others believe that most of the society worked on the land and required nothing from the state, northern Kush seemed to be more productive and wealthier than the Southern area
Kingdom of Kush
Kingdom of Kush
Kingdom of Kush
–
Maximum extent of Kush in 700 BC
Kingdom of Kush
–
Sudan Meroe Pyramids –
UNESCO World Heritage.
10.
Artifact (archaeology)
–
An artifact or artefact is something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an object of archaeological interest. In archaeology, however, the word has become a term of particular nuance and is defined as, an object recovered by archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest. However, modern archaeologists take care to distinguish material culture from ethnicity, examples include stone tools, pottery vessels, metal objects such as weapons, and items of personal adornment such as buttons, jewelry and clothing. Bones that show signs of modification are also examples. Natural objects, such as fire cracked rocks from a hearth or plant material used for food, are classified by archeologists as ecofacts rather than as artifacts, natural objects that humans have moved but not changed are called manuports. Examples include seashells moved inland, or rounded pebbles placed away from the action that made them. For instance, a bone removed from a carcass is a biofact. Similarly there can be debate over early stone objects that could be either crude artifacts or naturally occurring and it can be difficult to distinguish the differences between actual man-made lithic artifacts and geofacts – naturally occurring lithics that resemble man-made tools. It is possible to authenticate artifacts by examining the general attributed to man-made tools. Artifact Collection at the Royal Military College of Canada Museum in Kingston, Ontario
Artifact (archaeology)
–
Mycenaean stirrup vase found in the acropolis of Ras Shamra (
Ugarit), 1400-1300 BC
Artifact (archaeology)
–
Archaeological artifact from the work developed in the area of
Citânia de Briteiros, Portugal
11.
Reed boats
–
Reed boats and rafts, along with dugout canoes and other rafts, are among the oldest known types of boats. Often used as fishing boats, they are still used in a few places around the world. Reed boats can be distinguished from reed rafts, since reed boats are usually waterproofed with some form of tar, as well as boats and rafts, small floating islands have also been constructed from reeds. The earliest discovered remains from a boat are 7000 years old. Reed boats are depicted in petroglyphs and were common in Ancient Egypt. A famous example is the ark of bulrushes in which the baby Moses was set afloat and they were also constructed from early times in Peru and Bolivia, and boats with remarkedly similar design have been found in Easter Island. Reed boats are used in Peru, Bolivia, Ethiopia. The explorations and investigations of the Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl have resulted in an understanding of the construction. The image on the right shows petroglyphs of a reed boat, the reed boat is similar to those depicted in cave paintings in Scandinavia, something that led Thor Heyerdahl to theorise that the Scandinavians came from the area that today is Azerbaijan. In the Gobustan Petroglyph Reserve there are more than 6,000 petroglyphs carved by the hunter-gatherers that lived in these caves 12,000 years ago, at that time the Caspian Sea was much higher and washed against the lower rocks of the hill. The Ancient Egyptians built boats from papyrus reeds, which were widely cultivated along the Nile River and this reed was also used for many other purposes, especially for providing papyrus writing parchments. Other reeds of the genus Cyperus may have used as well. Theophrastus in his History of Plants states that the rigging on King Antigonus fleet, used to fasten the doors when Ulysses slew the suitors in his hall, was made from papyrus reed. According to the Bible, when the Pharaoh issued a decree to all the Israelite males, the baby Moses was saved by his mother. The bulrushes this small boat or basket was built with may have been papyrus, casting babies adrift in reed boats on the Nile was a common practice in that period. Heyerdahl wanted to demonstrate that ancient Mediterranean or African people could have crossed the Atlantic, in 1969, Heyerdahl constructed a reed boat he named Ra after the ancient Egyptian sun god. Its design was based on ancient Egyptian models and drawings, the boat was built by boatmen from Lake Chad in the Republic of Chad with papyrus reeds from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It was launched off the coast of Morocco, and set sail in an attempt to cross the Atlantic, after several weeks, its crew modified the vessel in a manner that caused Ra to sag and take on water
Reed boats
–
Totora reed fishing boats on the beach at
Huanchaco,
Peru
Reed boats
–
Petroglyphs of a reed boat and men
Reed boats
–
The Ancient Egyptian used
papyrus reeds to make boats
Reed boats
–
The reed boat Ra II
12.
Rope
–
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting, as a result, they cannot be used for pushing or similar compressive applications. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly constructed cord, line, string, fiber rope is made from fiber, whereas wire rope is made from wire. Rope may be constructed of any long, stringy, fibrous material, synthetic fibre ropes are significantly stronger than their natural fibre counterparts, but also possess certain disadvantages, including slipperiness. Common natural fibres for rope are manila hemp, hemp, feathers, linen, cotton, coir, jute, straw, synthetic fibres in use for rope-making include polypropylene, nylon, polyesters, polyethylene, Aramids and acrylics. Some ropes are constructed of mixtures of several fibres or use co-polymer fibres, wire rope is made of steel or other metal alloys. Ropes have been constructed of fibrous materials such as silk, wool, and hair. Rayon is a fibre used to make decorative rope. The twist of the strands in a twisted or braided rope serves not only to keep a rope together, without any twist in the rope, the shortest strand would always be supporting a much higher proportion of the total load. Rope is of paramount importance in fields as diverse as construction, seafaring, exploration, sports, theatre, and communications, to fasten rope, many types of knots have been invented for countless uses. Pulleys redirect the force to another direction, and can create mechanical advantage so that multiple strands of rope share a load. Winches and capstans are machines designed to pull ropes, such ropes normally use a kernmantle construction, as described below. Static ropes, used for example in caving, rappelling, and rescue applications, are designed for minimal stretch, the UIAA, in concert with the CEN, sets climbing-rope standards and oversees testing. Any rope bearing a GUIANA or CE certification tag is suitable for climbing, climbing ropes, however, do cut easily when under load. Keeping them away from sharp rock edges is imperative, rock climbing ropes come with either a designation for single, double or twin use. A single rope is the most common and it is intended to be used by itself, single ropes range in thickness from roughly 9mm to 11mm. Smaller ropes are lighter, but wear out faster, double ropes are thinner ropes, usually 9mm and under, and are intended for use as a pair. These ropes offer a margin or security against cutting, since it is unlikely that both ropes will be cut, but they complicate belaying and leading
Rope
–
A coil of hemp rope
Rope
–
Three-strand twisted natural fibre rope
Rope
–
Dynamic Kernmantle rock climbing rope with its braided sheath cut to expose the twisted core yarns and core yarn plies.
Rope
–
Section through the same rope
13.
Sandals
–
Sandals are an open type of footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearers foot by straps going over the instep and, sometimes, around the ankle. Sandals can also have a heel, while the distinction between sandals and other types of footwear can sometimes be blurry, the common understanding is that a sandal leaves most of the upper part of the foot exposed. People may choose to wear sandals for several reasons, among them comfort in warm weather, economy, usually, people wear sandals in warmer climates or during warmer parts of the year in order to keep their feet cool and dry. The risk of developing athletes foot is lower than with enclosed shoes, and the wearing of sandals may be part of the treatment regimen for such an infection. The oldest known sandals were discovered in Fort Rock Cave in the U. S. state of Oregon, radiocarbon dating of the bark from which they were woven indicates an age of at least 10,000 years. The word sandal is of Greek origin, the sole of the latter was sometimes made much thicker than usual by the insertion of slices of cork, so as to add to the stature of the wearer. The ancient Egyptians wore sandals made of palm-leaves and papyrus and they are sometimes observable on the feet of Egyptian statues and in reliefs, being carried by sandal-bearers. According to Herodotus, sandals of papyrus were a part of the required, a sandal may have a sole made from rubber, leather, wood, tatami or rope. A sandal may or may not have a heel or heel strap, crochet sandals Fisherman sandal is a type of T-bar sandal originally for men and boys. The toes are enclosed by a number of leather bands interwoven with the central length-wise strap that lies along the instep, an adjustable cross strap or bar is fastened with a buckle. The heel may be enclosed or secured by a single strap joined to the cross strap. The style appears to have originated in France, a similar style is sometimes called gladiator sandal High-heeled sandal, a type of sandal with an elevated heel. They allow the wearer to have an open shoe while being less casual or more formal, depending on the style of the sandal. Hiking and trekking sandals are designed for hiking or trekking in hot and tropical climates, usually using robust rubber outsole, suitable for any terrain and these sandals are usually shaped to support the arched contour of the foot. The straps are made of polyester or nylon webbing for quick drying after exposure to acid. Also suitable for other adventure sports and activities where quick drying and reduced perspiration is required. Ho Chi Minh sandals is one name for a homemade or cottage industry footwear, the cut from an old automobile tire. Made and worn in countries, they became wider known in the US as worn by the rural people of Indochina during the Vietnam War
Sandals
–
A pair of sandals being worn.
Sandals
–
Esparto sandals from the
6th or
5th millennium BC found in
Spain.
Sandals
–
Rubber flip-flops are amongst one of the most common types of sandals in the world.
Sandals
–
Sandals for men
14.
Basket
–
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other such as horsehair, baleen. Baskets are generally woven by hand, some baskets are fitted with a lid, others are left open. Baskets serve utilitarian as well as aesthetic purposes, some baskets are ceremonial, that is religious, in nature. Prior to the invention of woven baskets, people used tree bark to make simple containers and these containers could be used to transport gathered food and other items, but crumble after only a few uses. Weaving strips of bark or other plant material to support the bark containers would be the next step, the last innovation appears to be baskets so tightly woven that they could hold water. Depending on soil conditions, baskets may or may not be preserved in the archaeological record, sites in the Middle East show that weaving techniques were used to make mats and possibly also baskets, circa 8000 BCE. Twined baskets date back to 7000 BCE in Oasisamerica, baskets made with interwoven techniques were common at 3000 BCE. Baskets were originally designed as multi-purpose baskets to carry and store, the plant life available in a region affects the choice of material, which in turn influences the weaving technique. The practice of basket making has evolved into an art, artistic freedom allows basket makers a wide choice of colors, materials, sizes, patterns, and details. The carrying of a basket on the head, particularly by women, has long been practised. Representations of this in Ancient Greek art are called Canephorae, the phrase to hell in a handbasket means to rapidly deteriorate. The origin of use is unclear. Basket is sometimes used as an adjective towards a person who is out of wedlock. This occurs more commonly in British English, basket also refers to a bulge in a mans crotch. Materials have been used by basket makers, Wicker Straw Plastic Metal Bamboo Palm Zepeda, ocean Power, Poems from the Desert. Baskets, The Womens Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Basket
–
Basket of Plums, painting by
Pierre Dupuis.
Basket
–
On the left side are live fowl baskets. Directly to the right are flat baskets used for selling shrimp and small fish in
Haikou City,
Hainan Province,
People's Republic of China
Basket
–
Palm baskets (front) and wicker baskets (back)
Basket
–
Baskets four styles
15.
Book of the Dead
–
The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom to around 50 BCE. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day, another translation would be Book of Emerging Forth into the Light. The Book of the Dead was part of a tradition of texts which includes the earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts. Some of the spells included were drawn from older works. Other spells were composed later in Egyptian history, dating to the Third Intermediate Period, a number of the spells which made up the Book continued to be inscribed on tomb walls and sarcophagi, as had always been the spells from which they originated. The Book of the Dead was placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased, there was no single or canonical Book of the Dead. The surviving papyri contain a selection of religious and magical texts. Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Dead developed from a tradition of funerary manuscripts dating back to the Egyptian Old Kingdom. The first funerary texts were the Pyramid Texts, first used in the Pyramid of King Unas of the 5th dynasty and these texts were written on the walls of the burial chambers within pyramids, and were exclusively for the use of the Pharaoh. Towards the end of the Old Kingdom, the Pyramid Texts ceased to be a royal privilege. In the Middle Kingdom, a new funerary text emerged, the Coffin Texts, the Coffin Texts used a newer version of the language, new spells, and included illustrations for the first time. The Coffin Texts were most commonly written on the surfaces of coffins. The Book of the Dead first developed in Thebes towards the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period, by the 17th dynasty, the Book of the Dead had become widespread not only for members of the royal family, but courtiers and other officials as well. At this stage, the spells were typically inscribed on linen shrouds wrapped around the dead, the New Kingdom saw the Book of the Dead develop and spread further. The famous Spell 125, the Weighing of the Heart, is first known from the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, from this period onward the Book of the Dead was typically written on a papyrus scroll, and the text illustrated with vignettes. During the 19th dynasty in particular, the vignettes tended to be lavish, in the Third Intermediate Period, the Book of the Dead started to appear in hieratic script, as well as in the traditional hieroglyphics. The hieratic scrolls were a version, lacking illustration apart from a single vignette at the beginning. At the same time, many burials used additional funerary texts, during the 25th and 26th dynasties, the Book of the Dead was updated, revised and standardised
Book of the Dead
Book of the Dead
–
Part of the
Pyramid Texts, a precursor of the Book of the Dead, inscribed on the tomb of
Teti
Book of the Dead
–
The mystical Spell 17, from the
Papyrus of Ani. The vignette at the top illustrates, from left to right, the god
Heh as a representation of the Sea; a gateway to the realm of Osiris; the
Eye of Horus; the celestial cow
Mehet-Weret; and a human head rising from a coffin, guarded by the four Sons of Horus.
Book of the Dead
–
Two 'gate spells'. On the top register, Ani and his wife face the 'seven gates of the House of Osiris'. Below, they encounter ten of the 21 'mysterious portals of the House of Osiris in the Field of Reeds'. All are guarded by unpleasant protectors.
16.
Roman portraiture
–
Roman portraiture was one of the most significant periods in the development of portrait art. Originating from Ancient Rome, it continued for almost five centuries, Roman portraiture is characterised by unusual realism and the desire to convey images of nature in the high quality style often seen in Ancient Roman art. Some busts even seem to show clinical signs, several images and statues made in marble and bronze have survived in small numbers. Roman funerary art includes many such as married couple funerary reliefs. Portrait sculpture from the Republican era tends to be more modest, realistic. Since most emperors from Augustus on were deified, some images are somewhat idealized, the Romans also depicted warriors and heroic adventures, in the spirit of the Greeks who came before them. The origin of the realism of Roman portraits may be, according to some scholars and these death masks were taken from bodies and kept in a home altar. Besides wax, masks were made from bronze, marble and terracotta, the molds for the masks were made directly from the deceased, giving historians an accurate representation of typically Roman features. In the days of the Republic, full-size statues of political officials, such an honor was provided by the decision of the Senate, usually in commemoration of victories, triumphs and political achievements. These portraits were usually accompanied by a dedicatory inscription, if the person commemorated with a portrait was found to have committed a crime, the portrait would be destroyed. Development of the Roman portrait was associated with increased interest in the individual, at the heart of the artistic structure of many Roman portraits is the clear and rigorous transfer of unique features of the model, while still keeping the general style very similar. Roman portraiture of the Imperial period includes works created throughout the provinces, often combining Greek, Roman, imagines Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, Il problema del ritratto, in Larte classica, Editori Riuniti, Rome 1984. Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli e Mario Torelli, Larte dellantichità classica, Etruria-Roma, Utet, pierluigi De Vecchi & Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dellarte, volume 1, Bompiani, Milan 1999
Roman portraiture
–
Portrait of
Lucius Verus
Roman portraiture
–
Veristic portrait bust of an old man, head covered (
capite velato), either a priest or
paterfamilias (marble, mid-1st century BC)
Roman portraiture
–
L. Calpurnius Piso Pontifex, late 1st century BC–early 1st century AD
Roman portraiture
–
Husband and wife from Pompeii, 20–30 AD (
Portrait of Paquius Proculo)
17.
Herculaneum
–
Located in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcanic pyroclastic flows in 79 AD. Its ruins are located in the commune of Ercolano, Campania and it had been thought until then that the town had been evacuated by the inhabitants. Herculaneum was a town than Pompeii, possessing an extraordinary density of fine houses with, for example. Ancient tradition connected Herculaneum with the name of the Greek hero Herakles, in fact, it seems that some forefathers of the Samnite tribes of the Italian mainland founded the first civilization on the site of Herculaneum at the end of the 6th century BC. Soon after, the town came under Greek control and was used as a trading post because of its proximity to the Gulf of Naples, the Greeks named the city Ἡράκλειον, Heraklion. In the 4th century BC, Herculaneum again came under the domination of the Samnites. The city remained under Samnite control until it became a Roman municipium in 89 BC, when, having participated in the Social War, it was defeated by Titus Didius, a legate of Sulla. After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the town of Herculaneum was buried under approximately 20 metres of ash, excavations continued sporadically up to the present and today many streets and buildings are visible, although over 75% of the town remains buried. Today, the Italian towns of Ercolano and Portici lie on the site of Herculaneum. Until 1969 the town of Ercolano was called Resina and it changed its name to Ercolano, the Italian modernization of the ancient name in honour of the old city. The inhabitants worshipped above all Hercules, who was believed to be the founder of both the town and Mount Vesuvius, Other important deities worshipped include Venus and Apollo. The catastrophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius occurred on the afternoon of 24 August 79 AD, because Vesuvius had been dormant for approximately 800 years, it was no longer even recognized as a volcano. Based on archaeological excavations and on two letters of Pliny the Younger to the Roman historian Tacitus, the course of the eruption can be reconstructed, at around 1pm on 24 August, Vesuvius began spewing volcanic ash and stone thousands of meters into the sky. When it reached the tropopause, the top of the cloud flattened, the prevailing winds at the time blew toward the southeast, causing the volcanic material to fall primarily on the city of Pompeii and the surrounding area. Since Herculaneum lay to the west of Vesuvius, it was only affected by the first phase of the eruption. While roofs in Pompeii collapsed under the weight of falling debris, only a few centimetres of ash fell on Herculaneum, causing little damage, during the following night, the eruptive column which had risen into the stratosphere collapsed onto Vesuvius and its flanks. The first pyroclastic surge, formed by a mixture of ash and hot gases, a succession of six flows and surges buried the citys buildings, causing little damage in some areas and preserving structures, objects and victims almost intact. In 1709 the digging of a deep well revealed some exceptional statues at the lowest levels which was found to be the site of the theatre
Herculaneum
–
The excavations of Ercolano
Herculaneum
–
Beginning in 1757, the eight volumes of
Le Antichità di Ercolano brought knowledge of Pompeii and Herculaneum to the fore.
Herculaneum
–
Plan of the excavations of Herculaneum
Herculaneum
–
For the modern Italian commune, see
Ercolano. For the pottery works, see
Herculaneum Works.
18.
Harbor
–
A harbor or harbour, or haven, is a body of water where ships, boats and barges seek shelter from stormy weather, or are stored for future use. Ports are often located in harbors, harbors can be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jettys, or they can be constructed by dredging, in contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides by prominences of land. Examples of natural harbors include Sydney Harbour, Australia and Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka, artificial harbors are frequently built for use as ports. The oldest artificial harbor known is the Ancient Egyptian site at Wadi al-Jarf, on the Red Sea coast, the largest artificially created harbor is Jebel Ali in Dubai. The Ancient Carthaginians constructed fortified, artificial harbors called cothons, a natural harbor is a landform where a part of a body of water is protected and deep enough to furnish anchorage. Natural harbors have long been of great strategic naval and economic importance, having a protected harbor reduces or eliminates the need for breakwaters as it will result in calmer waves inside the harbor. For harbors near the North and South Poles, being ice-free is an important advantage, the worlds southmost harbor, located at Antarcticas Winter Quarters Bay, is potentially ice-free, depending on the summertime pack ice conditions. Although the worlds busiest port is a hotly contested title, in 2006 the worlds busiest harbor by cargo tonnage was the Port of Shanghai
Harbor
–
Capri harbor,
Italy seen from
Anacapri
Harbor
–
A natural harbor in
Vizhinjam,
India
Harbor
–
The tiny harbor at the village of
Clovelly,
Devon,
England
Harbor
–
Old Harbor in
Lüneburg,
Germany.
19.
Red Sea
–
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait, to the north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez. The Red Sea is a Global 200 ecoregion, the sea is underlain by the Red Sea Rift which is part of the Great Rift Valley. The Red Sea has an area of roughly 438,000 km2, is about 2250 km long and. It has a depth of 2211 m in the central median trench. However, there are also extensive shallow shelves, noted for their marine life, the sea is the habitat of over 1,000 invertebrate species, and 200 soft and hard corals. It is the worlds northernmost tropical sea, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Red Sea as follows, On the North. The Southern limits of the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, a line joining Husn Murad and Ras Siyyan. Red Sea is a translation of the Greek Erythra Thalassa, Latin Mare Rubrum, Arabic, البحر الأحمر. Al-Baḥr Al-Aḥmar, Somali Badda Cas and Tigrinya Qeyyiḥ bāḥrī, the name of the sea may signify the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured Trichodesmium erythraeum near the waters surface. A theory favored by modern scholars is that the name red is referring to the direction south. The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to the cardinal directions, herodotus on one occasion uses Red Sea and Southern Sea interchangeably. Historically, it was known to western geographers as Mare Mecca. Some ancient geographers called the Red Sea the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. C, in that version, the Yam Suph is translated as Erythra Thalassa. The Red Sea is one of four seas named in English after common color terms — the others being the Black Sea, the White Sea and the Yellow Sea. The direct rendition of the Greek Erythra thalassa in Latin as Mare Erythraeum refers to the part of the Indian Ocean. The earliest known exploration of the Red Sea was conducted by ancient Egyptians, one such expedition took place around 2500 BC, and another around 1500 BC. Both involved long voyages down the Red Sea, historically, scholars argued whether these trips were possible
Red Sea
–
Red Sea
Red Sea
–
Tihama on the Red Sea near Khaukha,
Yemen
Red Sea
–
Annotated view of the Nile and Red Sea, with a dust storm
Red Sea
–
Dust storm over the Red Sea
20.
Khufu
–
Khufu, originally Khnum-Khufu, is the birth name of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty in the first half of the Old Kingdom period. Khufu was the pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, he followed his possible father, king Sneferu. He is generally accepted as having commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the only completely preserved portrait of the king is a three-inch high ivory figurine found in a temple ruin of later period at Abydos in 1903. All other reliefs and statues were found in fragments and many buildings of Khufu are lost, everything known about Khufu comes from inscriptions in his necropolis at Giza and later documents. For example, Khufu is the actor of the famous Papyrus Westcar from the 13th dynasty. Most documents that mention king Khufu were written by ancient Egyptian, thanks to these documents, an obscure and critical picture of Khufus personality persists. Khufus name was dedicated to the earth deity Khnum, which point to an increase of Khnums popularity. Khufu may have viewed himself as a creator, a role that was already given to Khnum. As a consequence, the king connected Khnums name with his own, interestingly, the pharaoh officially used two versions of his birth name, Khnum-khuf and Khufu. The first version clearly exhibits Khufus religious loyalty to Khnum, the version does not. It is unknown as to why the king would use a shortened version, since it hides the name of Khnum. It might be possible though, that the name wasnt meant to be connected to any god at all. Khufu is well known under his Hellenized name Khêops or Cheops and less well known under another Hellenized name, a rare version of the name of Khufu, used by Josephus, is Sofe. Arab historians, who wrote stories about Khufu and the Giza pyramids. The royal family of Khufu was quite large and it is uncertain if Khufu was actually the biological son of Sneferu. Mainstream Egyptologists believe Sneferu was Khufus father, but only because it was handed down by historians that the eldest son or a selected descendant would inherit the throne. In 1925 the tomb of queen Hetepheres I, G 7000x, was found east of Khufus pyramid and it contained many precious grave goods, and several inscriptions give her the title Mut-nesut, together with the name of king Sneferu. Therefore, it seemed clear at first that Hetepheres was the wife of Sneferu, more recently, however, some have doubted this theory, because Hetepheres is not known to have borne the title Hemet-nesut, a title indispensable to confirm a queens royal status
Khufu
–
Statue of Khufu in the
Cairo Museum
Khufu
–
Portrait of Sneferu, Khufu's father or stepfather
Khufu
–
Granite fragment with Khufu's horus name Medjedu on it.
Khufu
–
Ivory idol of Khufu in detail
21.
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, initially at 146.5 metres, the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed an outer surface. Some of the stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramids construction techniques, most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. There are three chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished, the so-called Queens Chamber and Kings Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and was constructed over a 20-year period, Khufus vizier, Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian cubits tall, each base side was 440 cubits,230.4 metres long. The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes, the volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic metres. Based on these estimates, building the pyramid in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day, the first precision measurements of the pyramid were made by Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1880–82 and published as The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Almost all reports are based on his measurements, many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid fit together with extremely high precision. Based on measurements taken on the casing stones, the mean opening of the joints is only 0.5 millimetre wide. The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, the accuracy of the pyramids workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimetres in length. The base is horizontal and flat to within ±15 mm, the ratio of the perimeter to height of 1760/280 royal cubits equates to 2π to an accuracy of better than 0. 05%. Some Egyptologists consider this to have been the result of deliberate design proportion, verner wrote, We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it. Petrie, author of Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh concluded, but these relations of areas, others have argued that the Ancient Egyptians had no concept of pi and would not have thought to encode it in their monuments. They believe that the observed pyramid slope may be based on a simple seked slope choice alone, with no regard to the overall size, in 2013 rolls of papyrus were discovered written by some of those who delivered stone and other construction materials to Khufus brother at Giza
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
Great Pyramid of Giza
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
Transparent view of Khufu's pyramid from SE. Taken from a 3d Model
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
Great Pyramid of Giza from a 19th-century
stereopticon card
photo
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
Casing stone in the
British Museum.
22.
Scroll (parchment)
–
A scroll, also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. The scroll is usually unrolled so that one page is exposed at a time, for writing or reading, with the remaining pages rolled up to the left and right of the visible page. It is unrolled side to side, and the text is written in lines from the top to the bottom of the page. Depending on the language, the letters may be left to right, right to left. Some scrolls are simply rolled up pages, others may have wooden rollers on each end, scrolls were the first form of editable record keeping texts, used in Eastern Mediterranean ancient Egyptian civilizations. Parchment scroll used by Israelites after Sinai was the first use of scrolls in the recording of literature before the codex or bound book with pages was invented by the Latins in the 1st century AD. Scrolls were more highly regarded than codices until well into Roman times where they were written in single latitudinal column. The ink used in writing scrolls had to adhere to a surface that was rolled and unrolled, even so, ink would slowly flake off of scrolls. Shorter pieces of parchment or paper are called rolls or rotuli, historians of the classical period tend to use roll instead of scroll. A distinction that sometimes applies is that the lines of writing in rotuli run across the width of the rather than along the length. Rolls may be wider than most scrolls, up to perhaps 60 cm or two feet wide, Rolls were often stored together in a special cupboard on shelves. A special Chinese form of book, called the whirlwind book, consists of several pieces of paper bound at the top with bamboo. In Scotland, the term scrow was used from about the 13th to the 17th centuries for scroll, writing, there existed an office of Clerk of the Scrow meaning the Clerk of the Rolls or Clerk of the Register. The scroll was replaced by the codex, a process which started almost as soon as the codex was invented. Unfortunately, scrolls were usually discarded after their contents were transferred to a codex, most scrolls uncovered by archaeologists are found in trash middens and burial sites. The oldest complete Torah scroll was discovered in May 2013 by Professor Mauro Perani. It was stored in a library in Bolonia, Italy. It had been mislabeled in 1889 as dating from the 17th century, carbon testing dates the prayer book to the year 840, which is 300 to 400 years earlier than the previously oldest known Torah scrolls from the 12th and 13th centuries
Scroll (parchment)
–
The Joshua Roll,
Vatican Library. An
illuminatedscroll, probably of the 10th century, created in the Byzantine empire.
Scroll (parchment)
–
Scroll of the
Book of Esther,
Seville,
Spain.
Scroll (parchment)
–
Ingredients used in making ink for Hebrew scrolls today.
23.
Parchment
–
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of kids, lambs and it may be called animal membrane by libraries and museums that wish to avoid distinguishing between parchment and the more restricted term vellum. Today the term parchment is often used in non-technical contexts to refer to any animal skin, particularly goat, sheep or cow, that has been scraped or dried under tension. Vellum in theory refers exclusively to calfskin, and is used to denote a quality of material. The term parchment originally referred only to the skin of sheep and, occasionally, the word parchment evolved from the name of the city of Pergamon which was a thriving center of parchment production during the Hellenistic period. This account, originated in the writings of Pliny the Elder, is dubious because parchment had been in use in Anatolia, in the 2nd century BC a great library was set up in Pergamon that rivaled the famous Library of Alexandria. Writing on prepared animal skins had a history, however. H. Ibscher, and preserved in the Cairo Museum, a roll of the Twelfth Dynasty now in Berlin, the text now in the British Museum. Though the Assyrians and the Babylonians impressed their cuneiform on clay tablets, early Islamic texts are also found on parchment. In the later Middle Ages, especially the 15th century, parchment was largely replaced by paper for most uses except luxury manuscripts, new techniques in paper milling allowed it to be much cheaper than parchment, it was still made of textile rags and of very high quality. With the advent of printing in the fifteenth century, the demands of printers far exceeded the supply of animal skins for parchment. Although most copies of the Gutenberg Bible are on paper, some were printed on parchment,12 of the 48 surviving copies, in 1490, Johannes Trithemius preferred the older methods, because handwriting placed on parchment will be able to endure a thousand years. But how long will printing last, which is dependent on paper and it lasts for two hundred years that is a long time. In fact high quality paper from this period has survived 500 years or more very well, the heyday of parchment use was during the medieval period, but there has been a growing revival of its use among artists since the late 20th century. Although parchment never stopped being used it had ceased to be a choice for artists supports by the end of 15th century Renaissance. This was partly due to its expense and partly due to its working properties. When the water in paint media touches parchments surface, the collagen melts slightly, forming a bed for the paint
Parchment
–
Central European (Northern) type of finished parchment made of
goatskin stretched on a wooden frame
Parchment
–
Latin
Grant written on fine parchment or
vellum with
seal dated 1329
Parchment
–
A 1385 copy of the
Sachsenspiegel, a German legal code, written on parchment with straps and clasps on the binding
Parchment
–
A Sefer
Torah, the traditional form of the
Hebrew Bible, is a scroll of parchment.
24.
Codex
–
A codex is a book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, or similar materials, with hand-written contents. The book is bound by stacking the pages and fixing one edge. Some codices are continuously folded like a concertina, the alternative to paged codex format for a long document is the continuous scroll. Examples of folded codices include the Maya codices, sometimes people use the term for a book-style format, including modern printed books but excluding folded books. The Romans developed the form from wooden writing tablets, the codexs gradual replacement of the scroll—the dominant book form in the ancient world—has been called the most important advance in book making before the invention of printing. The codex transformed the shape of the book itself, and offered a form that lasted for centuries, the spread of the codex is often associated with the rise of Christianity, which adopted the format for use with the Bible early on. In fact, any combination of codices and scrolls with papyrus and parchment is technically feasible, the codex began to replace the scroll almost as soon as it was invented. In Egypt, by the century, the codex outnumbered the scroll by ten to one based on surviving examples. By the sixth century, the scroll had almost vanished as a medium for literature, technically, even modern paperbacks are codices, but publishers and scholars reserve the term for manuscript books produced from Late antiquity until the Middle Ages. The scholarly study of manuscripts from the point of view of the bookbinding craft is called codicology. The study of ancient documents in general is called paleography, the Romans used precursors made of reusable wax-covered tablets of wood for taking notes and other informal writings. Two ancient polyptychs, a pentatych and octotych, excavated at Herculaneum used a connecting system that presages later sewing on of thongs or cords. Julius Caesar may have been the first Roman to reduce scrolls to pages in the form of a note-book. At the turn of the 1st century AD, a kind of folded parchment notebook called pugillares membranei in Latin became commonly used for writing in the Roman Empire, theodore Cressy Skeat theorized that this form of notebook was invented in Rome and then spread rapidly to the Near East. Codices are described in works by the Classical Latin poet. He wrote a series of five couplets meant to accompany gifts of literature that Romans exchanged during the festival of Saturnalia. ”Early codices of parchment or papyrus appear to have widely used as personal notebooks. The parchment notebook pages were commonly washed or scraped for re-use and consequently, writings in a codex were often considered informal, as early as the early 2nd century, there is evidence that a codex—usually of papyrus—was the preferred format among Christians. In the library of the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum, however, in the Nag Hammadi library, hidden about AD390, all texts are codices
Codex
–
The
Codex Gigas, 13th century, Bohemia.
Codex
–
Codices largely replaced scrolls similar to this.
Codex
–
Reproduced Roman-style
wax tablet, from which the codex evolved
Codex
–
Early medieval bookcase containing about ten codices depicted in the
Codex Amiatinus (ca. 700)
25.
Vellum
–
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane used as a material for writing on. Vellum is prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, vellum is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation and the quality of the skin. The manufacture involves the cleaning, bleaching, stretching on a frame, to create tension, scraping is alternated with wetting and drying. A final finish may be achieved by abrading the surface with pumice, modern paper vellum is a quite different synthetic material, used for a variety of purposes, including plans, technical drawings, and blueprints. In Europe, from Roman times, the vellum was used for the best quality of prepared skin, regardless of the animal from which the hide was obtained, calf, sheep. Although the term derives from the French for calf, animal vellum can include hide from virtually any other mammal. The best quality, uterine vellum, was said to be made from the skins of stillborn or unborn animals, there has long been, however, much blurring of the boundaries between these terms. In 1519, William Horman could write in his Vulgaria, That stouffe that we wrytte upon, modern scholars and custodians increasingly use only the safe if confusing term membrane. In the usage of modern practitioners of the crafts of writing, illuminating, lettering. Vellum is a translucent material produced from the skin, often split, the skin is washed with water and lime, but not together. It is then soaked in lime for several days to soften, once clear, the two sides of the skin are distinct, the side facing inside the animal and the hair side. The inside body side of the skin is usually the lighter, the hair follicles may be visible on the outer side, together with any scarring, made while the animal was alive. The membrane can also show the pattern of the animals vein network called the veining of the sheet, any remaining hair is removed and the skin is dried by attaching it to a frame. The skin is attached at points around the circumference with cords, to prevent tearing, the maker then uses a crescent shaped knife, to clean off any remaining hairs. Once the skin is dry, it is thoroughly cleaned and processed into sheets. The number of extracted from the piece of skin depends on the size of the skin. For example, the average calfskin can provide three and half sheets of writing material. This can be doubled when it is folded into two conjoint leaves, also known as a bifolium, historians have found evidence of manuscripts where the scribe wrote down the medieval instructions now followed by modern membrane makers
Vellum
–
The
Magna Carta written in Latin on vellum, held at the
British Library
Vellum
–
A vellum
deed dated 1638, with pendent
seal attached.
Vellum
–
A
portolan chart (map) by Jacobo Russo (Giacomo Russo) of Messina (1533)
Vellum
–
A Volume Of Treatises On Natural Science, Philosophy, And Mathematics (1300) Ink on vellum.
26.
Henri Pirenne
–
Henri Pirenne was a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a history of Belgium in French. He also became prominent in the nonviolent resistance to the Germans who occupied Belgium in World War I, Pirenne was born in Verviers, near the city of Liège, in south-east Belgium. He studied at the University of Liège where he was a student of Godefroid Kurth and he became Professor of History at the University of Ghent in 1886, a post he held until the end of his teaching career in 1930. After the Great War he was the most prominent and influential historian in Belgium, receiving numerous honors, Pirenne was a close friend of German historian Karl Lamprecht, until they broke during the war when Lamprecht headed a mission to invite Belgians to collaborate with Germanys long-term goals. In 1914, Belgium was invaded by the German Empire and placed under German military occupation, how involved Pirenne was in the Belgian resistance during World War I is not known. What is known is that Pirenne was questioned by German occupiers on 18 March 1916, the occupying army had ordered striking professors at the University of Ghent to continue teaching. Pirennes son Pierre had been killed in the fighting at the Battle of the Yser in October 1914, the German officer questioning Pirenne asked why he insisted on answering in French when it was known that Pirenne spoke excellent German and had done postgraduate studies at Leipzig and Berlin. Pirenne responded, I have forgotten German since 3 August 1914, Pirenne was held in Crefeld, then in Holzminden, and finally in Jena, where he was interned from 24 August 1916 until the end of the war. He was denied books, but he learned Russian from soldiers captured on the Eastern Front and this gave Pirennes work a unique perspective. At Jena, he began his history of medieval Europe, starting with the fall of Rome, rather than a blow-by-blow chronology of wars, dynasties and incidents, A History of Europe presents a big-picture approach to social, political and mercantile trends. It is remarkable not only for its insight, but also its objectivity. At the conclusion of the war, Henry Pirenne stopped his work on A History of Europe in the middle of the 16th century and he returned home and took up his life. He died at Uccle, Brussels in 1935 and his son Jacques Pirenne, who had survived the war to become a historian in his own right, discovered the manuscript. He edited the work by inserting dates for which his father was uncertain in parentheses, Jacques wrote a preface explaining its provenance and published it, with the English translation appearing in 1956. It stands as a monumental intellectual achievement, Henri Pirenne first expressed ideas on the formation of European towns in articles of 1895, he further developed the idea for the Pirenne Thesis while imprisoned in Germany during World War I. He subsequently published it in a series of papers from 1922 to 1923, the most famous expositions appear in Medieval Cities, Their Origins and the Revival of Trade and in his posthumous Mohammed and Charlemagne, published from Pirennes first draft. When trade revived in the tenth and eleventh centuries, merchants and artisans were drawn to the existing centres, forming suburbs in which trade
Henri Pirenne
–
The Maison Vivroux in Verviers where Pirenne was born in 1862
Henri Pirenne
–
Portrait
27.
Merovingian
–
The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for nearly 300 years in a region known as Francia in Latin, beginning in the middle of the 5th century. Their territory largely corresponded to ancient Gaul as well as the Roman provinces of Raetia, Germania Superior and the southern part of Germania. The Merovingian dynasty was founded by Childeric I, the son of Merovech, leader of the Salian Franks, after the death of Clovis there were frequent clashes between different branches of the family, but when threatened by its neighbours the Merovingians presented a strong united front. During the final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role, the Merovingian rule ended in March 752 when Pope Zachary formally deposed Childeric III. Zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, confirmed and anointed Pepin the Short in 754, the Merovingian ruling family were sometimes referred to as the long-haired kings by contemporaries, as their long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short. The Merovingian dynasty owes its name to the semi-legendary Merovech, leader of the Salian Franks, the victories of his son Childeric I against the Visigoths, Saxons, and Alemanni established the basis of Merovingian land. Childerics son Clovis I went on to unite most of Gaul north of the Loire under his control around 486, when he defeated Syagrius, the Roman ruler in those parts. He won the Battle of Tolbiac against the Alemanni in 496, at time, according to Gregory of Tours. He subsequently went on to defeat the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé in 507. After Cloviss death, his kingdom was partitioned among his four sons, leadership among the early Merovingians was probably based on mythical descent and alleged divine patronage, expressed in terms of continued military success. In 1906 the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie suggested that the Marvingi recorded by Ptolemy as living near the Rhine were the ancestors of the Merovingian dynasty, upon Cloviss death in 511, the Merovingian kingdom included all of Gaul except Burgundy and all of Germania magna except Saxony. To the outside, the kingdom, even when divided under different kings, maintained unity, after the fall of the Ostrogoths, the Franks also conquered Provence. After this their borders with Italy and Visigothic Septimania remained fairly stable, internally, the kingdom was divided among Cloviss sons and later among his grandsons and frequently saw war between the different kings, who quickly allied among themselves and against one another. The death of one king created conflict between the brothers and the deceaseds sons, with differing outcomes. Later, conflicts were intensified by the personal feud around Brunhilda, however, yearly warfare often did not constitute general devastation but took on an almost ritual character, with established rules and norms. Eventually, Clotaire II in 613 reunited the entire Frankish realm under one ruler, later divisions produced the stable units of Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy and Aquitania. The frequent wars had weakened royal power, while the aristocracy had made great gains and these concessions saw the very considerable power of the king parcelled out and retained by leading comites and duces. Very little is in fact known about the course of the 7th century due to a scarcity of sources, clotaires son Dagobert I, who sent troops to Spain and pagan Slavic territories in the east, is commonly seen as the last powerful Merovingian King
Merovingian
–
Signet ring of
Childeric I.
Monnaie de Paris.
Merovingian
–
Francia expanded from
Austrasia, established by the Merovingian dynasty.
Merovingian
–
Frankish gold
Tremissis, imitation of
Byzantine Tremissis, mid-6th century.
Merovingian
–
Coin of
Chlothar II, 584-628.
British Museum.
28.
Gaul
–
It covered an area of 190,800 sq mi. According to the testimony of Julius Caesar, Gaul was divided into three parts, Gallia Celtica, Belgica and Aquitania, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Gaul fell under Roman rule, Gallia Cisalpina was conquered in 203 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri and the Teutons, Gallia remains a name of France in modern Greek and modern Latin. The Greek and Latin names Galatia, and Gallia are ultimately derived from a Celtic ethnic term or clan Gal-to-. Galli of Gallia Celtica were reported to refer to themselves as Celtae by Caesar. Hellenistic folk etymology connected the name of the Galatians to the supposedly milk-white skin of the Gauls, modern researchers say it is related to Welsh gallu, Cornish galloes, capacity, power, thus meaning powerful people. The English Gaul is from French Gaule and is unrelated to Latin Gallia, as adjectives, English has the two variants, Gaulish and Gallic. The two adjectives are used synonymously, as pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls, although the Celtic language or languages spoken in Gaul is predominantly known as Gaulish. The Germanic w- is regularly rendered as gu- / g- in French, also unrelated in spite of superficial similarity is the name Gael. The Irish word gall did originally mean a Gaul, i. e. an inhabitant of Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to foreigner, to describe the Vikings, and later still the Normans. The dichotomic words gael and gall are sometimes used together for contrast, by 500 BC, there is strong Hallstatt influence throughout most of France. By the late 5th century BC, La Tène influence spreads rapidly across the territory of Gaul. The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, southwest Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, farther north extended the contemporary pre-Roman Iron Age culture of northern Germany and Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the Romans described Gallia Transalpina as distinct from Gallia Cisalpina, while some scholars believe the Belgae south of the Somme were a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements, their ethnic affiliations have not been definitively resolved. One of the reasons is political interference upon the French historical interpretation during the 19th century, in addition to the Gauls, there were other peoples living in Gaul, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians who had established outposts such as Massilia along the Mediterranean coast. Also, along the southeastern Mediterranean coast, the Ligures had merged with the Celts to form a Celto-Ligurian culture, the prosperity of Mediterranean Gaul encouraged Rome to respond to pleas for assistance from the inhabitants of Massilia, who were under attack by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls. The Romans intervened in Gaul in 154 BC and again in 125 BC, whereas on the first occasion they came and went, on the second they stayed. Massilia was allowed to keep its lands, but Rome added to its territories the lands of the conquered tribes. The direct result of conquests was that by now, Rome controlled an area extending from the Pyrenees to the lower Rhône river
Gaul
–
Map of Roman Gaul (Droysens Allgemeiner historischer Handatlas, 1886)
Gaul
–
Gaul on the eve of the Gallic Wars.
Roman ethnography divides Gaul into five parts:
Gallia Belgica,
Gallia Celtica (largely corresponding to the later province
Gallia Lugdunensis),
Gallia Cisalpina,
Gallia Narbonensis and
Gallia Aquitania.
Gaul
–
Gauls in Rome
Gaul
–
Soldiers of Gaul, as imagined by a late 19th-century illustrator for the
Larousse dictionary, 1898
29.
Papal bull
–
A Papal bull is a specific kind of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by a pope of the Roman Catholic Church. It is named after the seal that was traditionally appended to the end in order to authenticate it. Papal bulls have been in use at least since the 6th century, but the phrase was not used until around the end of the 13th century, and then only internally for unofficial administrative purposes. However, it had become official by the 15th century, when one of the offices of the Apostolic Chancery was named the register of bulls, by the accession of Pope Leo IX in 1048, a clear distinction developed between two classes of bulls of greater and less solemnity. The majority of the bulls now in existence are in the nature of confirmations of property or charters of protection accorded to monasteries. In an epoch when there was much fabrication of such documents, a Papal confirmation, under certain conditions, could be pleaded as itself constituting sufficient evidence of title in cases where the original deed had been lost or destroyed. Since the 12th century, Papal bulls have carried a seal with the heads of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul on one side. Papal bulls were issued by the Pope for many kinds of communication of a public nature. Papyrus seems to have used almost uniformly as the material for these documents until the early years of the eleventh century. Popularly, the name is used for any Papal document that contains a metal seal, today, the bull is the only written communication in which the Pope will refer to himself as Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei. For example, when Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree in bull form, while Papal bulls always used to bear a metal seal, they now do so only on the most solemn occasions. A Papal bull is today the most formal type of public decree or letters patent issued by the Vatican Chancery in the name of the Pope, the body of the text had no specific conventions for its formatting, it was often very simple in layout. For the most solemn bulls, the Pope signed the document himself, following the signature in this case would be an elaborate monogram, the signatures of any witnesses, and then the seal. Nowadays, a member of the Roman Curia signs the document on behalf of the Pope, usually the Cardinal Secretary of State, and thus the monogram is omitted. The most distinctive characteristic of a bull was the seal, which was usually made of lead. On the obverse it depicted, originally somewhat crudely, the early Fathers of the Church of Rome, the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, identified by the letters Sanctus PAulus and Sanctus PEtrus. Each head was surrounded by a circle of globetti, and the rim of the seal was surrounded by a ring of such beads. On the reverse was the name of the issuing Pope in the nominative Latin form, with the letters PP, for Pastor Pastorum
Papal bull
–
Papal bull of
Pope Urban VIII, 1637, sealed with a lead
bulla.
Papal bull
–
The Apostolic constitution Magni aestimamus issued as a Papal bull by
Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 which instituted the
Military Ordinariate of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Papal bull
–
Printed text of
Pope Leo X 's Bull against the errors of
Martin Luther, also known as
Exsurge Domine, issued in June 1520
Papal bull
–
Lead
bulla (
obverse and reverse) of
Urban V, Pope 1362 to 1370
30.
Pope Victor II
–
Pope Victor II, born Gebhard, Count of Calw, Tollenstein, and Hirschberg, was Pope from 13 April 1055 to his death in 1057. He was one of a series of German reform popes and he was born Gebhard of Calw, a son of the Swabian Count Hartwig of Calw and a kinsman of Emperor Henry III. At the insistence of Gebhard, Bishop of Ratisbon, the 24-year-old Gebhard was appointed Bishop of Eichstätt, in this position, he supported the Emperors interests and eventually became one of his closest advisors. After the death of Pope Leo IX, a Roman delegation headed by Hildebrand, later Pope Gregory VII, travelled to Mainz and he suggested Gebhard, who was duly nominated in September 1054. Gebhard, taking the name Victor II, moved to Rome and was enthroned in St. Peters Basilica on 13 April 1055. Victor excommunicated both Ramon Berenguer I, count of Barcelona, and Almodis, countess of Limoges, for adultery, at the behest of Ermesinde of Carcassonne, in 1055. In June 1055, Victor met the Emperor at Florence and held a council, which reinforced Pope Leo IXs condemnation of clerical marriage, simony, and the loss of the churchs properties. In the following year, he was summoned to the Emperors side, during, the rivalry between Archbishop Anno II of Cologne and other senior clergymen and the Dowager Empress, Victor II backed Agnes and her supporters. He died shortly after his return to Italy, at Arezzo and his death would mostly mark an end to the close relationship shared between the Salian dynasty and the Papacy. Victor IIs retinue wished to bring his remains to the cathedral at Eichstätt for burial, before they reached the city, however, the remains were seized by some citizens of Ravenna and buried there in the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda, the burial place of Theodoric the Great
Pope Victor II
–
Pope Victor II
